The New and Improved Admissions Process – with PointClickCare and Carequality

As a SNF, you know all too well that the admission process for a new resident can often be a struggle. Papers lost, lengthy documentation entry, and missing patient records can disrupt the process and cause a delay in patient care. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easier way? There is! With PointClickCare and Carequality, the admission process is quick and efficient. Need more convincing? Read on to hear from a few subject matter experts and pilot program users who are already seeing the results of connecting. 

Finding the Patient

In a SNF environment, when a new admission arrives, they don’t always come with or at the same time as their documentation, which means the admissions nurse does not have the necessary information to properly admit that patient. Admitting a patient is also a time sensitive issue and providers need to respond almost immediately. Often times, this broken system leads to providers responding blindly with the assumption that they’re going to be able to care for this patient.

Connecting to Carequality gives providers the opportunity to validate the clinical fit of referrals at the time of referral by accessing the patient’s current medical status directly from the hospital. “Providers are able to receive that information immediately after they receive the referral and can actually see the clinical status of the patient and determine whether or not it’s a good fit”, says Kathleen Harris, General Manager, PointClickCare.

With PointClickCare and Carequality, there is no disconnect since the patient records are at your fingertips. Genice Hornberger, Group Product Leader, PointClickCare, also commented, “When you are able to get that information electronically right from the hospital, you don’t have to worry about the paper coming with them and making it into the right hands. Being able to import those documents and then reconcile the medications and diagnosis directly into PointClickCare helps to improve that process and streamline the transitions of care.”

Saving Time with Search Functionality

With search capabilities right in the patients record, your admissions woes are a thing of the past. You can quickly search for that patient and see all the necessary data right away. Pilot program user, Coral Lindahl, PointClickCare Coordinator, Fairview Ebenezer Ridges, commented that, “Sometimes referrals can be 60 pages long, and that’s a lot to read through in the short amount of time we have to make a decision. With Carequality, one thing we have found that is really helpful is the search for keywords function. It allows us to search for certain past history items, medications they are on, or past conditions, that will help us determine if we can take them in and also helps us to create a care plan.”

The search function also helps to reduce errors during the admissions process by enabling the provider to have all the necessary information as well as the functionality to put it to use. “One of the burdens that the nurse has is when they are searching for a patient, information has to be exact. Even one misspelled word will result in the patient not being found. Carequality takes away that burden by simplifying the search process while opening it up to a broader range of records that they might not have found before”, says Kathleen.

Going paperless for the future of healthcare

One of the other challenges during admissions is paper documents. They can get lost, damaged, or even destroyed. Even if you do have those paper documents, it takes a considerable amount of time to enter that information into your system. And now with COVID-19, everything is quickly moving over to being electronic, rendering paper documents obsolete.

As Genice notes, “Paperless is a huge plus right now with managing COVID-19 in SNFs. Being able to see the hospital documentation whether that be COVID-19 testing or other medical related conditions helps streamline the transition of care.”

Another way electronic orders help is by reducing transcription errors. Previously with paper orders there would be a lengthy transcription process of transferring the patient’s data over to your system. Unfortunately, this also leads to errors such as typing in a dosage incorrectly. “PointClickCare and Carequality help SNFs to reduce medication errors which also ultimately keeps the patient at a higher-level functioning and reduces readmittance to the hospital”, says Genice.

Partnering with Hospitals

Less errors = less readmissions = happy hospital partners. Hospitals are just as worried about the readmission risk as a SNF. Not only is it a risk for their patients’ health, it also has a huge impact on them financially. Working together, we can help one another prevent readmissions and provide better care to our patients.

“From a hospital perspective, if the hospital can ensure that the patient is going to the right SNF, they are then able to get their patient the care that they require and their patient will have a lower probability of being readmitted to their hospital, so really it benefits all sides of the care continuum” comments Pirasanna Sivalingam, Sr Product Manager, PointClickCare.

During a transfer from a hospital to a SNF, it is especially important that data regarding medications is being updated throughout the cycle. Medication errors can be detrimental and cause readmissions. Knowing the diagnosis from the hospital not only drives care delivery and ensures the patients are getting the appropriate medical care on day one in the SNF, it also impacts the reimbursement for the SNF. Genice summarizes this issue well by commenting, “If they don’t have all the medical conditions or diagnosis for that resident, then they’re not going to get the appropriate reimbursement for that resident, and the resident and the SNF will suffer the consequences.”

When a resident transfer does go out from the hospital to the SNF, the hospital wants a complete picture of the resident, but a lot of times there is no time to provide that. Being able to electronically provide that information already stored in the EHR, makes the process much easier. Genice says, “It helps the hospital know the current state of the patient and how the provider can begin caring for that patient to ensure that the patient has a good transition, that they can continue the medications, and ultimately provide the best possible treatment.”

In previous systems, coordinating with hospitals, and any other health care provider, was a daunting task. But as Nathan Lee, Product Leader, PointClickCare comments, “Normally, it would be difficult to coordinate with all the different providers throughout the patients journey and now with PointClickCare and Carequality, we can find any piece of the patient’s history with only a few clicks and in real-time.”

The truth of the matter is, the combination of PointClickCare and Carequality is a one of a kind solution for skilled nursing facilities. There is no other solution in the industry that can tell you that you have the right patient to admit, provide you with the data, and expedite the medication reconciliation all in one real-time singular flow of process – at no additional cost. It truly is a complete solution from referral to admissions to medication reconciliation, saving providers valuable time and resources.